


A Lost Love (Warning, Spoilers for Winter!)

by Aceofstars16



Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: AU ending, Angst, Brotp, Character Death, Cinder & Thorne brotp, F/M, Other, winter spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 04:57:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5403905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aceofstars16/pseuds/Aceofstars16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU ending for Winter. I could go into more depth but I don't want anyone to read this and have Winter spoiled for them!</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lost Love (Warning, Spoilers for Winter!)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic contains major Winter spoilers!!! Don't read unless you have finished Winter!

Throne could feel the difference as soon as he was out of the room. He was no longer being controlled; his limbs could move on their own again. It was a freeing feeling, but I was dulled by what that had happened; almost falling into the lake, almost shooting Cinder, and then stabbing Cress. Thorne knew he would never forget that horrible moment, the moment his own hand betrayed him in hurting the one he cared about the most.

                “Oh stars Cress…” he said, rushing over to her as soon as his feet hit the ground.  He gripped her hand, trying not to look at the wound in her stomach.

                “Captain…” she said, her voice barely a whisper, a tired smile on her lips.

                “You are going to be ok Cress, we are going to get you to a doctor and they will fix you up. It’ll be just fine, you are going to be just fine,” he said, brushing a stray piece of hair out of her eyes with his non-inured hand.

                “We…we were heroic…weren’t we?” Her voice seemed weak, as if everything depended on this one question.

                Thorne didn’t dare glance up to look towards the throne room, where Cinder still was. He didn’t know what was happening, he didn’t know if they had been heroic, if they had won, but he couldn’t admit that. “Yeah…yeah we were heroic.”

                A real smile lit up Cress’ heart-shaped face, then she whispered, “I told you…”

                “Told me what?” Thorne asked, refraining from looking up from her. Surely a doctor was on the way, they would be here soon. They would save her. She just had to stay awake. He just needed to keep her talking.

                Cress closed her eyes for a moment and took a shuttering breath before answering. “I told you…I told you that you were a hero…you always were one…”

                “You are the real hero Cress, without you we wouldn’t have been able to do any of this.” This time, Thorne couldn’t resist glancing up. There was no one around them, he assumed Wolf and Scarlet had gone to get help, they would be back soon. Just a little longer, they just needed a little longer.

                “Captain?”

                At Cress’ voice Thorne looked back down at her, and his heart hiccupped. Her skin was white, she eyes were barely open…but she would be fine, she had to be fine. “Yes?”

                “Did…did you mean it? When you said…you said you loved her…loved me…”

As each word was forced out of Cress’ mouth, Thorne felt his heart being pressed on all sides, his mind was a whirlwind, his emotions where a hurricane. “Cress…” his voice cracked as it dawned on him what was happening. She was dying. And there was nothing he could do. No one was coming, or if they were it would be too late. Right when he found out what love was he was about to lose it. “Yes, I meant it, every word, I love you Cress, more than anything.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead, not daring to kiss her lips, to make sure she could still breath, just in case….just in case help came in time.

At his words Cress smiled up at him, “I love you too…” The words spilled out of her mouth in a shallow breath.

It took a few seconds for Thorne to realize that she didn’t breathe in again after that. A sob welled up in his throat, tears filled his eyes, and a sharp pain pierced his heart.

“Cress…Cress no…please…don’t go…I can’t…Cress…” A tear fell onto her forehead, shining on her white skin, her unmoving body; then he broke down. Sob after sob, tear after tear, he was broken, lost, beyond repair. He knew he would never recover, never heal, after all, who could be the same after losing the one they loved?

\----------------------------------------------------------------

                Thorne stared at the wall, his mind dulled to every emotion, every thought. Nothing seemed real anymore. He couldn’t feel, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything. Cress was gone and it was all his fault. He had stabbed her; his own hand had laid the killing blow. That reality washed over him again and again, sometimes resulting in him crying, but mostly it just resulted in him feeling empty and he knew no one would ever be able to fill him up again.

                “Thorne?”

                He barely heard the voice, but he glanced up just enough to see Cinder standing in the doorway, a cane supporting her. A little flutter of emotion stirred in his chest at the sight of her, relief. At least she hadn’t been taken from him too. But then the moment disappeared, the emptiness returned and he let his gaze slip to the floor.

                Footsteps sounded on the ground, accompanied by the tapping of the cane, but he didn’t pay it any attention, not even when Cinder sat down next to him.

                Silence stretched out between them, only the sound of breathing and the warmth of her body proved that Cinder was still sitting beside him.

                “It wasn’t your fault.”

                The words jerked Thorne out of his daze and he glanced at Cinder, “What?”

                “Cress…” she said, turning to look at him, “It…it wasn’t your fault, it was Levana, it wasn’t you.”

                Thorne felt a spike of emotion, but he didn’t know what it was. Anger? Guilt? Resentment? Whatever it was it energized him, “Yes it was! I stabbed her!”

                Anger sparked in Cinder’s eyes, but her voice was level when she spoke, “No, it was Levana controlling you, it was her.”

                Emotion started building inside Thorne’s chest, and her glared back at Cinder, emotions building up inside of his chest. “But it was my hand, I killed her Cinder! I…” His voice broke as his anger dissolved into unrelenting sadness. A sob escaped his mouth and before he knew is he was crying, his body wracking with tears.

                He barely registered himself being pulled into Cinder’s hug, but he didn’t resist he comfort or the tears that spilled down his face. His mind was a torrent of emotion, so strong that he couldn’t think; he could only feel, and all he felt was sadness. The sorrow was so great that it threatened to drown him, to take him away, but Cinder’s embrace seemed to anchor him, she wasn’t going to let him be swept away. It was both a blessing and a curse. He didn’t want to live his live with this pain anymore, but he didn’t want to inflict it on anyone else either. And slowly, as his tears fell and his sobs echoed around the room, he felt the grief dimming, not leaving but being pushed aside, forced down until slow, bit by bit, he felt himself being comforted.

                Things would never be the same. That was a fact. But he could not give up on life, not yet, not now. Cress wouldn’t want him to; she would want him to continue, to push forward in the midst of the unyielding pain, to be the hero she had always believed he was. A seed of resolution settled in Thorne’s heart, he wouldn’t give up; he would be strong, for Cress.

                Taking a deep breath, he leaned back which resulted in Cinder releasing him from her grip. Looking at her he saw worry in her eyes along with an overwhelming sadness, though her cheeks were free from tear marks. He supposed that was one of the benefits of being a cyborg…though after feeling the freedom of finally allowing himself to cry, Thorne wondered if that inability was more of a curse than a blessing.

                “You ok?” Cinder asked, then seemed to wince as if she were regretting her choice of words.

                “No…but I will be…one day…” Thorne said, trying to suppress his hiccupping as he spoke, but it was no use. He couldn’t stop it after crying so hard for so long.

                Cinder nodded at his response and placed a hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

                He gave her a half-hearted smile, “Are you ok?”

                At that she laughed lightly, though it was void of any real humor, “Yeah, I’m peachy, just trying to figure out how to run a country at the age of sixteen.”

                “You’ll do fine.”

                “Maybe…at least Kai is still here, he’s been helping me out a lot.”

                Thorne nodded and silence spanned between them for a few moments, but it was a companionable silence, not much else needed to be said. Then Thorne felt something he hadn’t felt before, a small spark of amusement, and although a weight still sat on his heart, he felt a little lighter than before. “You know we still need to pick out your tiara.”

                “What?” Cinder said quickly, looking at him like he had just said they needed to jump into the lake.

                “You said I could help you pick out a tiara when we finished saving the world…and now the world is saved…” Thorne said, and though the words felt a little forced, he also welcomed the familiarity of it - him teasing Cinder. There was something comforting about it. Cress was gone, but he still had Cinder, a pillar in his life, a friend who he had gone through so much with. And really, if he was honest with himself, she was the closest thing to family that he had… Yes, he technically still had his parents but there had never been anything comforting about their presence. He had always performed for them or ignored them, but with Cinder and everyone else in the Rampion crew, he could just be himself and right now that’s exactly what he needed.

                “Wow I had forgotten about that…”

                Cinder’s words snapped Thorne back into the present and he gave her a mischievous grin, one that didn’t feel too forced. “Well I haven’t. So are we going to pick one out or not?”

                “Sure, why not, even though technically I already have a crown…” she said hesitantly, though it was clear from her eyes that she was relieved to see him acting more like himself.

                “A crown, not a tiara; there is a difference,” he said, waving a finger at her, once again taking comfort in the familiar teasing.  
                “Ok, ok, fine, let’s go look for a tiara, as long as you don’t pick out anything too gaudy,” Cinder said as she stood up.

                “I will make no such promises!” Thorne said as he stood up as well, “And Cinder…thanks.”

                A genuine smile grew on Cinder’s face and she shrugged, “Well it wasn’t like I was going to let you sit in here forever, after all, the Rampion crew needs its Captain.”


End file.
